The overall financing of the education system is still heavily reliant on households' private contributions to both direct and indirect education costs. Although various surveys vary widely in their estimation of these costs, even conservative socio-economic surveys report that on average, unofficial monthly school fees at primary level are riels 3500 per pupil, riels 8000 at lower secondary and riels 10,200 at upper secondary level. These do not include costs for other incidentals for other incidentals such as uniforms, stationery, etc.

Recent surveys also highlight that households (especially more affluent, urban ones) are willing to pay substantially for the guarantee of high quality education. The National Household Survey (1997) indicated that parents are willing to pay 10 times as much for quality private schooling, particularly at secondary level. It appears that parents judge that the greater guarantee of access to competitive post-secondary education (especially the elite university faculties) represents a worthwhile investment.

However, this largely unregulated private financing of education has resulted in a potential education/poverty trap. For example, the representation of the poor is much greater in the primary student population than in the secondary or tertiary student population. This is particularly true of Cambodia, where 20 per cent of primary students but only 2 per cent of upper secondary students are drawn from the poorest 20 per cent of the population. In contrast, 61 per cent of the upper secondary students in the country come from the richest 20 per cent of the population. The representation of the poor in tertiary education is zero, while the richest 20 per cent of the population accounts for 57 per cent of tertiary education.

This analysis raises a number of key financial planning and management issues. First, there is a strong argument for devoting a large share of public resources for primary education where the poorest are most represented. Second, to assure reduced cost barriers to secondary education, the level of formal and informal payments to schools and teachers needs to be contained to affordable levels and better regulated. In some instances, there may be a case for selective fee waivers for primary and secondary education.

Another contributing factor in this education/poverty trap is the demand for school age children, often girls, to contribute to household chores and household income generation. For example, in a recent CSES 1999 survey, it was estimated that of the 1.6 million school age children not attending full time, around 25, per cent stated household income/work responsibilities as the primary factor. In contrast, only 8 per cent of the sample cited lack of suitable, accessible education provision as the primary barrier.